The thief
by knitted web
Summary: Mai is a young viking girl.


**Me: Welcome to my story. I know its not long but i'm proud of it. I do no own ghost hunt *sob*. If I did the anime would have a second season and Naru would have confessed to Mai already.**

It was getting dark out and the Viking town of Jorvik was full of people getting ready to start making their food. Most people had already gotten wood for their fires.

"Mai go get some wood for the fire so I can cook," said her mother. "And don't complain because if you had gotten the wood earlier you wouldn't have to now."

"Yes mother," said Mai. Mai was a girl of 13 years with brown hair and brown eyes. She had forgotten to get the wood earlier because she had been playing with her new toy boat, which was much nicer than her old one. She went to where there was plenty of wood to gather just past the stream. In the distance she could see the fields. These were great expanses of crops belonging to the Jarl. He was in charge of everyone in the village. She could also see someone in the fields digging the crops out of the ground! She ran home and told her mother what she saw.

"A thief!" exclaimed her mother "he must be punished!"

Mai thought that it had looked like the potter who was very greedy and had passed this trait along to his son Knut. They were always trying to get more money. She shared her guess with her best friend Ayako. The next day Mai and her mother told the Jarl what Mai had seen. On their way home, Masako, the Jarl's daughter, asked to speak with Mai.

"Can you help me catch the thief who stole the crops?" she asked.

"Yes," said Mai "I already have an idea about who it could be." Inside, Mai was bursting with pride at the fact that Masako had asked her to find the thief.

After that Mai decided to go spy on the potter. When she got to his home all she heard was the sound of pottery being fired.

From behind her a voice says, "What are you doing?" She spun around and saw Naru the farmer's son standing behind her. He was about her age and not very nice most of the time, always being mean to the girls, but would help when there was trouble. "I umm… I was… I was trying to spy on the potter because I think he stole crops from the Jarls land." She said after not being able to think up a convincing lie.

"And why are _you_ doing it, shouldn't you be at home doing your weaving?" he said.

"Because _I'm_ the one who saw the thief," she said angrily. "I was asked to find and catch the thief by Masako." This was why she did not like him very much, he was forever thinking girls were weak.

"Will you get a reward?" asked Naru.

"I don't know, maybe." Mai said to him, wondering why he was asking.

"Well, if I help you and you get a reword will you give me half?" he asked.

"Well you were being rude to me just now," she said "but if you do a good job I'll give you half."

"Thank you!" he said. "I need the money my father does not get to keep many of the crops he farms."

"Alright then, I think we should set up a trap for the thief," Said Mai. "Come with me," she said. They went to get some rope. After that they went to the edge of the field and proceeded to set up a snare to catch the thief.

"Now we wait," said Mai.

"I have to go now," said Naru after a while.

When it started to get dark the thief came, but it looked like he was searching for something, maybe the trap?! He then seemed to locate it and then he started to dig up the food. Mai ran out yelling for him to stop but he ran away.

"How did he know that the trap was there unless someone told him?" Mai asked herself. "Maybe someone did tell him!"

But the only other person who knew about it was Naru, perhaps when he left he had gone to tell the thief where the trap was but then who was the thief? Then suddenly Mai had it, "Of course!" She exclaimed, "It has to be him."

Just then she heard her mother calling her. "Time to do your spinning Mai," she said. Mai groaned she hated spinning.

"Stop that grumbling of yours," said her mother. As she spun she thought about a good way to catch the thief. Then she had it, a perfect way to get him!

"Pay attention to what you're doing Mai," she had just made a knot in the string. She sighed and started to undo it.

The next day she went to the field and started to dig a hole just big enough for a person's foot to get stuck in. Then she went to see Ayako and asked her to bring her brother to the field in the evening .At night she waited for the thief to come. She waited and waited and finally the thief came.

She held her breath in anticipation. She saw him place his foot in the hole and stumble. Then she ran towards him and threw the net she had in her hands over him. Then Ayako and her brother Yasu came and helped Mai drag the farmer to the Jarl's home.

"This is the man who has been stealing the crops," announced Mai. "It was the farmer Ulf who stole the crops."

"But why would you steal the crops?" asked the Jarl.

"Because," said the farmer, "I barely get enough food to keep me and my family alive!"

"I see," said the Jarl, "well I will let you go with a warning and I will give you more crops in the future." He stooped and picked up a chest. "Mai, Ayako, and Yasu thank you for helping me I will give you each two things from this chest, come and choose what you want."

They each picked two things from the chest. Mai chose two knives with gold inlays on the handles. Later she went to see Naru and gave him one of the knives.

"But why are you giving this to me when the thief was my father?"

"I told you that if you helped me find the thief I would give you half of my reword," said Mai, "And because the thief knew the snare was there it helped me figure out that someone had to have told him, so because you helped me I'm giving this to you."

"I have head home now but if I ever need help again a will ask you." THE END.

**Well? What do you think? This is pretty much a story I wrote months ago and then altered to have the characters names. Please review!**


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